Spent our second night (and Martini Night!) on the Saône at a lovely “Nature mooring” (i.e. tied up to the bank) after a record 40 Km day. We only averaged about 16 Km/day on the Canal de Burgogne because of all the locks. Locks on the river are much less frequent, we went through only three all yesterday.
Speaking of locks we had a bit of excitement at the first lock the morning. We were waiting to ascend the lock while two boats were descending. I hopped off the boat and walked over to help/watch when I heard some yelling. The lead boat had tied off his bow line (NEVER fix a line in a lock) and, as the water level dropped the bow of the boat begin to lift out of the water. I yelled at the gentleman to cut the rope, I yelled knife in French and English but he was too confused to hear. As the water dropped and the bow lifted higher he pulled the alarm but the level continued to drop. Finally I got his wife’s attention and got her to run to their galley and get a knife. When he cut the rope, the front of the boat fell 4-5 feet to the water with a crash. No one was hurt but the lock had to be reset by a lock keeper (there was no lock keeper present – these are self-operated locks) so we had to wait a bit.
So we were read for a nice quite picnic lunch in Mantoche…
with swans!
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